Mardi Gras

Although Mardi Gras is supposed to be a time of merry-making and indulging oneself, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. It is the one single reason I abhor anything pertaining to New Orleans.  It would be a great day if only everyone who celebrated it also understood what it means and therefore also observed Lent.  Sadly, probably 97.5% of all the people out celebrating right now have never even heard of Lent.  Fat Tuesday has been so corrupted by places like New Orleans that few people even realize anymore what the day means.  Ah well, it's too depressing to even write about so I will stop there.

Today my patience and tolerance were tested by people at the bank.  Specifically, those in the drive-thru lanes.  I think it only common courtesy to make sure you are ready with your deposits, checks, or whatever, when you get up to the little vacuum thingy.  But apparently this does not occur to people who bank at BOK.  I sat there and watched the girl in front of me spend about 25 minutes taking care of her business.  I've no idea what she was doing, but in order to accomplish it, she had to send the little canister back and forth about 8 times.  Now, I'm thinking that if your transaction is this involved, perhaps the drive-thru isn't the best place for you.  And who waits until they get to the front of the line before endorsing checks and filling out deposit slips!?  I truly do NOT understand this.  I know I hate to wait in long lines, so I try to be as fast as possible when it's my turn so as not to make others wait.  Is this a foreign concept?  Or is it just that the person in front of me was an idiot?  I don't think I can adequately express, in this short space, how badly I wanted to exit my vehicle and assault this girl.  And I am not a violent person!  What makes all this even funnier, in a sick, twisted way, is that the tellers at BOK are always asking me if we want to move our checking accounts and other banking to BOK (we only have our mortgage through BOMC right now).  I always politely tell them we are not interested and go on my way.  Today I waited for them to ask, and I was going to actually say, in a nice way, that their drive-thru being the slowest in town is part of the reason we do not bank there.  Alas, she never asked and it's just as well.  I might have been slightly less than polite this time.  (We used to have our business account at BOK and they were an absolute nightmare to deal with. Never again.)

So I guess that's a good thing to ponder on the eve of Ash Wednesday and during the Lenten season this year.  Instead of giving up chocolate or sweets or fast food, I will attempt to give up impatience and anger with other people (even if they need smacking, or worse).  I will also attempt to give up other bad habits and try to be the person God made me to be.  Maybe someday I will even be able to convince myself that non-thin people deserve to be loved as much as thin people...Nah, that's probably asking too much.  I'll stick with the patience and tolerance concepts, which are goals I have some chance of reaching.  Baby steps, Kathy, baby steps...

~k